<h2>DESCRIPTION</h2>

The GRASS program <em>r.patch</em> allows the user to build a new
raster map the size and resolution of the current region by assigning
known data values from input raster maps to the cells in this region.
<br>
In case of overlapping input raster maps this is done by filling in
"no data" cells, those that do not yet contain data, contain NULL data,
or, optionally contain 0 data, with the data from the first input map.
Once this is done the remaining holes are filled in by the next input map,
and so on.
<br>
In case of adjacent input raster maps the output map contains the map
mosaic.

<p>
Hence this command is useful for
<ul>
<li> making a composite raster map layer from two or more adjacent map layers,</li>
<li> for filling in "holes" in a raster map layer's data (e.g., in digital
     elevation data), or
<li> for updating an older map layer with more recent data.</li>
</ul>

The current geographic region definition and mask settings are respected.

<center>
<img src="r_patch.png">
<p><em>Figure: Result of patching of two raster maps containing NULLs
using the default settings.</em></p>
</center>

<h3>Stacking order</h3>

<p>The first <em>name</em> listed in the string
<b>input=</b><em>name</em>,<em>name</em>,<em>name</em>,... is the name
of the first map whose data values will be used to fill in
cells in the current region.
Then, the second through the last input
maps (..., <em>name</em>, <em>name</em>, ...) will be used,
in order, to supply data values for the remaining
"no data" cells (or cells with value 0 with <b>-z</b> flag).

<p>
In other words, the first raster map is used first and if it had some
"no data" cells, then second raster map is used for these cells, then
the third and so on.
So the formal command line syntax can be also written as
<b>input=</b><em>primary</em>,<em>secondary</em>,<em>tertiary</em>,...
For two raster maps, the first one can be viewed as the primary one
or the default one and the second one as the secondary one or a fallback. 

<center>
<img src="r_patch_zeros_as_nulls.png">
<p><em>Figure: Result of patching of two raster maps using the
<b>-z</b> flag to treat zeros as NULLs. Note the value 1 being preserved
from the first raster while the value 6 is taken from the second raster
instead of the value 0 from the first raster because zeros are replaced
with the <b>-z</b> flag active.</em></p>
</center>

<h3>Relation to SQL COALESCE() function</h3>

The module is corresponds to the SQL COALESCE() function.
This function takes two or more arguments and returns
a copy of its first non-NULL argument. If all arguments are NULL,
the function returns NULL.

<p>
The <em>r.patch</em> module iterates over all cells and for each cell
of the output raster map uses the first corresponding non-NULL cell
in the series of the input raster maps.

<h3>Example of filling areas</h3>

<!-- this example is also used in the tests -->

Below, the raster map layer on the far left is <b>patched</b>
with the middle (<em>patching</em>) raster map layer,
to produce the <em>composite</em> raster map layer on the right.
The example assumes zero values to be treated as NULLs (<b>-z</b> flag).

<div class="code"><pre>
  1 1 1 0 2 2 0 0    0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0    1 1 1 1 2 2 0 0
  1 1 0 2 2 2 0 0    0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0    1 1 1 2 2 2 0 0
  3 3 3 3 2 2 0 0    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0    3 3 3 3 2 2 0 0
  3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0    4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4    3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4
  3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0    4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4    3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4
  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0    4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4    4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
</pre></div>

Switching the <em>patched</em> and the <em>patching</em> raster map layers 
produces the following results: 

<div class="code"><pre>
  0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0    1 1 1 0 2 2 0 0    1 1 1 1 2 2 0 0
  0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0    1 1 0 2 2 2 0 0    1 1 1 1 2 2 0 0
  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0    3 3 3 3 2 2 0 0    3 3 3 3 2 2 0 0
  4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4    3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0    4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
  4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4    3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0    4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
  4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0    4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
</pre></div>


<h2>NOTES</h2>

Frequently, this program is used to patch together adjacent map layers which
have been digitized separately.  The program 
<em><a href="v.mkgrid.html">v.mkgrid</a></em> can be used to make adjacent
maps align neatly.

<p>The user should check the current geographic region settings before running 
<em>r.patch</em>, to ensure that the region boundaries encompass all 
of the data desired to be included in the composite map and to ensure that the
region resolution is the resolution of the desired data. To set the
geographic region settings to one or several raster maps, the <em>g.region</em>
program can be used:

<div class="code"><pre>
g.region raster=map1[,map2[,...]]
</pre></div>

<p>
Use of <em>r.patch</em> is generally followed by use of the GRASS programs 
<em><a href="g.remove.html">g.remove</a></em> and 
<em><a href="g.rename.html">g.rename</a></em>;
<em>g.remove</em> is used to remove the original (un-patched) raster map
layers, while <em>g.rename</em> is used to then assign to the newly-created
composite (patched) raster map layer the name of the original raster map
layer.

<p>
<em>r.patch</em> reads the existing category label files and color tables
from the <em>input</em> maps and creates these files for the patched, 
composite <em>output</em> map.  This can be quite time consuming for 
certain maps, especially if there are many different category values 
across the patched maps. The <em>-s</em> flag allows disabling the reading
and creation of these support files,  meaning that the <em>output</em> 
map will have no category labels and no explicit color table.

<p>
Number of raster maps to be processed is given by the limit of the
operating system. For example, both the hard and soft limits are
typically 1024. The soft limit can be changed with e.g. <tt>ulimit -n
1500</tt> (UNIX-based operating systems) but not higher than the hard
limit. If it is too low, you can as superuser add an entry in

<div class="code"><pre>
/etc/security/limits.conf
# &lt;domain&gt;      &lt;type&gt;  &lt;item&gt;         &lt;value&gt;
your_username  hard    nofile          1500
</pre></div>

This would raise the hard limit to 1500 file. Be warned that more
files open need more RAM. See also the Wiki page
<a href="https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Large_raster_data_processing">Hints for large raster data processing</a>.

<p>
Operating systems usually limit the length of the command line
which limits the number of input raster maps user can pass to the module
using the option <b>input</b>. In that case,
<em><a href="r.series.html">r.series</a></em> can be used instead of
<em>r.patch</em>.


<h2>EXAMPLES</h2>

<h3>Example with three maps</h3>

The input are three maps called roads, water and forest. Primarily,
we want to use the values from roads, then from water and if no
other values are available we want to use forest.
First we set the computation region assuming that the all three maps
fully overlap and have the same resolution (so we can safely use the
just the one without further modifications of the region).
Then we perform the patching.

<div class="code"><pre>
g.region raster=roads
r.patch input=roads,water,forest output=result
</pre></div>

<h3>Map mosaic example using Bash syntax</h3>

Create a list of maps matching a pattern, extend the region to include them
all, and patch them together to create a mosaic. Overlapping maps will be 
used in the order listed.

<div class="code"><pre>
MAPS=`g.list type=raster separator=comma pat="map_*"`
g.region raster=$MAPS -p
r.patch input=$MAPS output=maps_mosaic
</pre></div>


<h2>SEE ALSO</h2>

<em>
<a href="g.region.html">g.region</a>,
<a href="g.remove.html">g.remove</a>,
<a href="g.rename.html">g.rename</a>,
<a href="r.mapcalc.html">r.mapcalc</a>,
<a href="r.support.html">r.support</a>,
<a href="r.series.html">r.series</a>,
<a href="v.mkgrid.html">v.mkgrid</a>
</em>
<p>
<a href="https://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Large_raster_data_processing">Hints for large raster data processing</a>

<h2>AUTHOR</h2>

Michael Shapiro, 
U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory
<br>
-z flag and performance improvement by Huidae Cho

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